Conventionally, personal or business computers have, as a peripheral, a printing apparatus with an ink cartridge mounted on a carriage, such as an inkjet printer or a bubble jet printer.
FIGS. 10(a) and 10(b) illustrate an example of a conventional support structure for ink cartridge. In the illustrated example, ink cartridges 21 are supported firmly by being pressed from front to rear, from side to side, and from top to bottom, by a carriage 22. The carriage 22 is guided by a guide shaft 22a which is mounted on a frame of an apparatus body, so as to be reciprocatable in a main scanning direction. Note that the support structure is “2-pen” type, i.e., the structure holds the two ink cartridges 21, 21 in alignment.
More specifically, the ink cartridges 21 are pressed from top to bottom by an upper pressure member 27. The upper pressure member 27 is rotatably attached to an upper cover 24 which is pivotably connected to the carriage 22. The ink cartridges 21 are also pressed from front to rear, i.e., from right to left in FIG. 10(b), by a front pressure member 26 which is attached to the carriage 22. Further, the ink cartridges 21 are pressed from left to right, i.e., from a near side to a far side of a sheet of FIG. 10(b) along a direction perpendicular to the sheet. In FIG. 10(b), a dashed double-dotted line depicts an open state of the front pressure member 26 and the upper pressure member 27.
In FIGS. 10(a) and 10(b), a pressure mechanism is provided for each of the ink cartridges 21. When the cartridges 21 are to be replaced, a wall standing upright at the front of the carriage 22, i.e., a lock claw 25, becomes an obstacle in mounting or dismounting each of the cartridges 21 in a rearward or forward direction.
Also, even with the upper cover 24 opened, the front pressure member 26 projecting at the front of the cover 24 is an obstacle in mounting or dismounting the cartridges 21 in a downward or upward direction. Furthermore, the lateral pressure member 28 still presses the ink cartridges 21 from leftwards, thereby preventing the cartridges 21 from being dismounted smoothly.
Thus, the conventional support structure for ink cartridge prevents smooth mounting and dismounting of the ink cartridges 21.
A feature of the present invention is to offer a durable support structure for ink cartridge allowing smooth mounting and dismounting of ink cartridge, as well as simplified assembly and adjustment operations of components.